Greg Lapointe scored his first goal of the season in the second period and the Skating Saints had a flurry of chances to tie the game late, but the St. Lawrence University men's hockey team had to settle for a 2-1 loss to #2/4 Quinnipiac on Friday night at M&T Bank Arena.

St. Lawrence fell to 5-8-0 with the loss and 2-3-0 in ECAC play, while the Bobcats improved to 11-1-3 and 7-0-0 in league play.

"They are a very good team and play a good transition game" said Charles W. Appleton II Head Coach Brent Brekke "We need to be more disciplined and not give additional offensive chances to a talented team. Their quick puck pressure created a lot of rushed plays off our sticks and it was not the level of execution we needed to generate more opportunities. I liked our resilience in the third period to keep pushing. We have to find a way to tie that game up."

The Bobcats, who were armed with three power play attempts in the first, had the better of the chances early. Emil Zetterquist was up to the task making 13 saves in the opening 20 minutes of play.

Late in the period, Felikss Gavars had the best chance of the frame for the Saints as an Ashton Fry turnaround shot was stopped by Yaniv Perets and rebounded out to the newcomer. Gavars' shot was turned aside to keep the game even at the first intermission.

Early in the second, Quinnipiac was given a golden opportunity as the Saints were whistled for their fourth penalty putting the Bobcats on a two-minute 5-on-3. Skyler Brind'Amour and Collin Graf moved the puck around the umbrella before finding Sam Lipkin on the right circle. The passing play left the net wide open for the goal as Lipkin gave his team a 1-0 lead.

The Skating Saints killed off the remainder of their five-minute major and immediately went on the offensive. Just 3:37 after surrendering the lead, Lapointe's first goal of the season tied up the contest. Cameron Buhl and Tyler Cristall applied heavy pressure causing a bad turnover from the Bobcat defense. Lapointe scooped up the puck behind the defense and slid a backhander under the pad of Perets to tie the game at 1-1.

Lapointe has proven to be dangerous against Quinnipiac scoring four of his five career goals against the Bobcats.

Quinnipiac would counterpunch on the power play minutes later to regain the one-goal lead. Lipkin returned the favor for Brind'Amour as he collected a Graf pass and found the stick of his teammate, who tipped the puck past Zetterquist to regain the lead.



The Saints nearly tied the contest late in the second period on multiple occasions as with 12 minutes to go Gavars one-timed a wrist shot over the shoulder of Perets and off the post, then in the closing minutes Philippe Chapleau put a shot on goal that was deflected to Mason Waite on the left circle. The sophomore's shot was blocked before getting to the unmanned goal as the game went to intermission at 2-1.  

After six penalty kills the Saints were given their first power play and started to turn the momentum in the third. Following the man advantage, Tomáš Mazura collected a Bobcat turnover and had a point-blank look on Perets. The shot clipped the goaltender and fell to Josh Boyer, who centered the puck and created a scrum in front of the Bobcat goal mouth. The puck would stay out keeping the game a one-goal contest.

As they searched for an equalizing goal the Saints turned up the pressure throughout the third and outshot the Bobcats 8-3 in the final 20 minutes. With 3:15 to go in regulation, the Scarlet and Brown pulled Zetterquist for an extra attacker and the Saints were able to churn out five shots in the final minutes including a shot from Fry down low with one second remaining that was stopped as their comeback bid struck zero.

Zetterquist was tremendous in between the pipes stopping 35 shots in the game, while his defense turned away 16 shots in front of him. Perets stopped 16 of the 17 shots he faced and received 10 blocks in front of him to help keep the lead.

Quinnipiac held a 35-17 shot advantage over the Saints and had the major advantage with six power play chances to St. Lawrence's one. The Scarlet and Brown went 0-for-1 on the man advantage, while the Bobcats benefitted from their extended chances going 2-for-6.

The Skating Saints will be back in action tomorrow night at Hobey Baker Rink as the Scarlet and Brown will line up against the Tigers of Princeton. The matchup is slated to begin at 7:00 p.m.